The present invention relates to a voltage converter, and more particularly to a voltage converter and corresponding method capable of automatically searching/determining a phase shedding/switching threshold and performing phase shedding for the voltage converter having a multi-phase output stage circuit.
Generally speaking, the power efficiency of a voltage converter having multiple output stages is dependent upon the phase shedding timing between the multiple output stages. The power efficiency of the voltage converter will be poor if this voltage converter merely enables a certain number of output stages to provide different output voltage and current levels. Thus, it is important for the voltage converter to perform phase shedding. However, a currently developed scheme is usually arranged to manually adjust the phase shedding timing for the voltage converter. In addition, an ideal phase shedding timing is usually determined by circuit costs, different output stages, and layouts of printed circuit boards. Thus, practically, it is difficult for the currently developed scheme to calculate and determine the phase shedding timing.